Note that dredge won the tournament, had the highest winrate, and was played by very few players. Dredge had 0 results in dailies for the past couple weeks, likely convincing some players to skimp on dredge hate. Thorn decks also had an improved showing from the last Power 9.

The Leovold/BUG decks were quite vexing to classify. The 4C Togores Gearhulk lists were placed under Blue Control, Beaver Gush Hydra and Brian Kelly's GSZ lists under gush, and all others under Other. Leovold has shown itself viable in many styles of decks. For this among other reasons, I recommend analyzing the metagame through the "Tag" lens.

Was a super fun tournament, pitch dredge is great. Not my list, copied it card for card from lllllll on mtgo. Actually went 8-0 in played matches, didn't play round 6 since we were both 5-0 and locked for t8. Might do a small tournament report, played shops 3x, mentor 2x, paradoxical fish and grixis therapy.

@p3temangus Drawing cards is great and Dack and Jace are great at drawing cards. What are you even trying to draw with Dack and Jace?

Jace and Dack are ok at being answers and ok at being threats, but they are really good at drawing cards. Chandra and Nahiri are good at being answers and great at being threats and only ok at drawing cards. Being able to kill creatures is a pretty useful ability. They can answer a Leovold where Jace and Dack are pretty useless. They can kill a Thought-Knot Seer or a Thalia or a Dragonlord Ojutai. Nahiri can kill an Oath of Druids. Chandra can kill a Jace. Chandra and Nahiri are just better against the things people play to beat the rest of your deck.

Chandra and Nahiri are more resilient. They have higher loyalty, better defensive abilities, and quicker ultimates. Not say Jace isn't a fantastic win condition. He is. It also sucks to have your four mana investment Pyroblasted. If that sounds like "Dies to Doom Blade" you're not wrong. The way to win Vintage control mirrors is by blanking all the Doom Blades. Making their Swords, Pushes, Blasts, Verdicts, and Decays dead is worth giving up the fourth Mentor or Dack or Jace.

Note that dredge won the tournament, had the highest winrate, and was played by very few players. Dredge had 0 results in dailies for the past couple weeks, likely convincing some players to skimp on dredge hate. Thorn decks also had an improved showing from the last Power 9.

The Top 16 mostly contradict this theory, but perhaps the rest of the field bear it out.

I'm not sure if this is something you've been playing for a while, but I'm interested in your approach. (Specifically the Sylvan Caryatid)

How was the Caryatid? Could you envision a Vintage deck that plays more than one? Or is it just only viable as a singleton with GSZ?

I've been testing GSZ for about a month and a half. The list I played on the VSL had no general meta applicability as it was tuned for what I expected in the Pod.

The Caryatid is great. I like the extra acceleration to pump out Jace, GSZ, Leo, and the Titan and to have a residual board position after Gushing. I prefer that mana sources simply do their job and had no patience anymore for the hassle of Deathrite Shaman, where you have no idea whether it will generate mana due to the ubiquity of Misstep, Plow, Decay, surprise Dig Through Times, and opposing Shamans as well as the awkwardness that results when there are no lands in the graveyard.

If there is any deck that would run more than 1 Caryatid, it would be a Superfriends list with 4 CMC sweepers/Moat where you really benefit from the color fixing and significantly from the untargetable 0/3 blocker while setting up or defending walkers. I would definitely play a Sylvan Caryatid and Sylvan Library in Nahiri if I ran it again.

Samantha: “Matt, the deck lost to Merfolk.”
Matt: “I don’t build decks to beat Merfolk. In any format.”